Food

Imagine a world with no limits...what would you eat? Where would you go to eat? Who would you share these Divine Delights with? ...Read More

Wine

From young root clippings in dry, arduous conditions to fruit bursting with the essence of the surrounding countryside, grapes are cultivated over a long period of time to bring you an explosion of sensory impact...Read More

Art

Where does inspiration come from? Travel has always been a vehicle to carry an artist off in a new direction. Travel, it has been said, purifies the mind, body and soul.Read More

Visiting some of the more famous trees at Christmas time is such a pleasure. Click the tree several times to see the full image and zoom in on some of the decor. Happy Holidays, everyone!
Hotel Del Christmas Tree 2012

Le Loup, 66 rue Loup, was a familiar and reasonably priced alternative. Run by the same brother-sister pair for 18 years, the restaurant has operated in the building since 1932. The 17 euro menu offered a salad of goat cheese lightly fried in bread crumbs with vinaigrette with verve, followed by a tender couple of pork medallions in mushroom sauce with potatoes fried in duck fat. Dessert was simple: fruit cocktail with lemon sorbet. The scallops in a sauce of honey, grapefruit and tangelos were dreamy, mopped up by rye bread we had bought at Paul bakery. We ordered a half bottle of Chateau Falfas 2005, Cotes de Bourg. It was tannic and needed another 5 years, since the 2005 year was very sunny and the wines strong.

Today, at Les Remparts, 49 place de la Cathedrale, Bazas we savored a rich lamb tajine with apricots and pistachios on couscous. The first courses, Bazas beef terrine with a small salad, or sweet melon with Bayonne ham, were delicious. The wine was a 2008 Coquillas Pessac Leognan. It had an intense aroma of violets and blackberries with a taste to match. Main courses were tender white cod on braised vegetables, Madras curry chicken (mild) with pineapple and steamed white rice. Dessert: flat apple tart with ice cream, an assortment of sorbets (pear, cassis, mandarin orange) accompanied by dense, bitter warm chocolate sauce and a side dish of Chantilly cream.

Las Vegas is mesmerizing. It is also enchanting, if you know where to look. I like looking for it inside The Conservatory of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino where art and flowers collide...call it "the intersection of something wonderful".

I’m not sure if this is edible or not. I lifted the lid to my mini-chopper and the way the scent hit my brain can only be described as a pick axe that was suddenly inserted up my nose with intent to split my brain in two. The intense burning in my sinuses only served to make me take a step backwards and say, “Whoa!” On exhale, my sinuses relaxed and I stopped for a moment to consider the following: store bought mustard is over processed; this is undiluted mustard flowers, picked two hours ago in Nature.

There is nothing like standing atop Southern California cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean for dolphin and whale watching. That being said, if you are not the outdoorsy type, you can perfect the experience by standing atop the cliffs from inside the beautiful five-star resort and spa of Terranea in Palos Verde, CA.

At the corner of West 7th Street and South Centre Street, next to Portside Cleaners, in Port San Pedro is a strange sight. "It" doesn't have a name that we could determine but it has a story. According to some locals, this gizmo-gadget senses your every move and it follows your movements when you walk by...when it works. The locals we spoke to about this gizmo-gadget say that it was (or is) some architect's far-out idea of "cool, fun, modern sculpture" but no one there seems to appreciate the suggested $200+k price tag it came with.